254 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



Let it he .• e room whore the family altar is erected, on whicli 

 the f;ithori)ifers the morning and the evening sacrifice. Let it 

 be consecrated to IS'eatness, and l^uriij', and Truth. Let no 

 hat ever i)i.' seen in that room on the head of its owner ; let 

 no coatless indiviiiiial be permitted to enter it. It" father's 

 head is liald (and some there are in that predic;iment) his 

 daughter will he proad to see his temples covered by the 

 neat and graceful silken cap that her own hands have fash- 

 ioned for liiin. If the coat ho wears by day is too heavy for 

 the evening, calicoes are cheap, and so is cotton wadding. 

 A few shillings placed in that daughter's hand ensure him 

 the most comfortable wrapper in the world ; and if his boots 

 are hard, and the nails cut mother's carpet, a bushel of wheal 

 once in llirce years will keep him in slippers of the easiest 

 kind. Let that table which has always stood under the 

 looking-glass, against the wail, be wheeled into the room, its 

 leaves raised, and plenty of useful (not ornamental) books 

 and periodicals bo laid upon it. When evening comes, 

 bring on the lights — and plenty of them — for sons and daugh- 

 ters — all who can — will be most willing students. They 

 will read, they will learn, they will discuss the subjects of 

 their studies with each other ; and parents will often be 

 quite as much instructed as tlicir children. The well con- 

 ducted agricultural journals of our day throw a flood of light 

 upon the srierice and practice of agriculture ; vvhile such a 

 work as Downing's Landscape Gardening, laid one year up- 

 on that centre table, will show its elfects to every passer by, 

 for with books and studies liko these a purer tasle is born 

 and grows most vigorously. 



"Pass along that road after five years' working of this sys- 

 tem in the feuiily. and what a change 1 The thistles by tlie 

 roadside enriched the manure heap for a year or two, and 

 then they died. These beautiful maples and graceful elms, 

 that beautify the grounds around that renovated home, were 

 grubbed from the wide hedge-rows of live years ago ; and so 

 were those prolilic rows of blackberries, and raspberries, and 

 bush cranberries, that show so richly in that neat garden, 

 yielding abundance of small fruit in their season. The un- 

 sightly out-houses are screened from observation by dense 

 masses of foliage ; and the many climbing plants that now 

 hang in graceful festoons from tree, and porch, and column, 

 once clambered along that same hedge-row. From the mea- 

 dow, from the wood, and from the gurgling stream, many a 

 native wild llower has been transplanted to a genial soil, be- 

 neath the homestead's sheltering wing, and yields a daily 

 otTering to the household gods, by the hands of those fair 

 priestesses who have now become their ministers. By the 

 planting of a I'evv trees, and shrubs, and flowers, and climb- 

 ing plants around that once bare and uninviting house, it has 

 become a tasteful residence, and its money value is more 

 than doubled. A cultivated taste displays itself in a thousand 

 forms, and at every touch of its hand gives beauty and value 

 to property. .\ judicious taste, so fir from plunging its pos- 

 sessor into expense, makes money for hinj. The land on 

 which that htdge-ruw grew five years ago, for instance, has 

 produced enough since to doubly fay the expense of grub- 

 bing it, and of transferring its fruit briers to the garden, 

 where they have not only supplied the family with berries 

 in their season, but have yielded many a surplus quart, to 

 purchase thatlongrowof red and yellow Antwerps and Kng- 

 lish gooseberries ; to say nothing of the scions bought with 

 their money, to form new heads for the trees in the old 

 orchard. 



" Those sons and daughters sigh no more for town or city 

 life, but love with intense affection every foot of ground thoy 

 tread upon, every tree, and every vine, and every shrub, 

 their hands have planted, or their taste has trained, liut 

 stronger still i\q their afl'eclions cling to that fatnily room, 

 where their ininils first begun to be develo|)ed, and to that 

 cenlre-Uible around which they still gather with the shades 

 of evening, to drink in knowledge, and wisdom, and under- 

 standing. 



" The stout firmer who once looked upon his acres only as 

 a laboratory for iraiisiuitiing labor into gold, now tiikcs a 

 widely d'.lfercnt view of his possessions. His eyes are o()en- 

 ed to the heauttfal in nature, and he looks with reverence 

 upon every giant remnant of the forest that by good luck es- 

 caped his murderous axe in former (lays. iVo leafy monarch 

 is now laid low without a stern necessity dcmiiids it ; but 

 many a vigorous tree is phinti'd, in the hope that the child- 

 ren of /iij cliildron may trather benv'ith the sreading branches 

 and talk with |)iouM gratitude of liiin who planted them. — 

 No longer feeling the need of Uxing his physical powers to 

 the utiiioMt, his eye takes the pla(;e of his hand, when the 

 latter grows weary, and iiund directs the operations of labor. 



See him stand and look with delighted admiration at his 

 sons, his educated sons, as they take hold of every kind of 

 work, and roll it ofi" with easy motion, but with the power 

 of mind in every stroke. 



" But it is the proud mother who takes the solid comfort, 

 and wonders that it is so easy after all, when one /mows how, 

 to live at ease, enjoy the society of happy daughters and 

 contented sons, to whom lUe city folks make most respectful 

 bows and treat with special deference as truly well bred ladies 

 and gentlemen. 



" Now, this is no more a fancy picture than the other. It is 

 a process that I have watched in many families, and in dif- 

 ferent States. The results are everywhere alike, because 

 they are natural. The same causes will always produce 

 the sanie eflects, varying circumstances only modifying the 

 intensity." 



Senator Douglass' Address at N. York State 

 Fair. — We have room only for a few extracts from 

 Senator Douglass' address: 



" So long as agriculture was the exclusive occupation of 

 an enslaved peasantry, it produced little more than the ne- 

 cessaries of life. It remained a mere sluggish libor ; con- 

 suming men's physical strength, and descending, with little 

 improvement, from father to son, among those who were 

 bornand'bred toil. Happily for the progress of mankind, 

 the condition of the agricultural laborer has changed in many 

 parts of the world, and it is no small source of jiride and 

 gratification for us to know that it is the example of America 

 which has wrought the change and restored agriculture to 

 its original rank among the most honorable occupations of 

 men. Jt is now a profession calling to its aid science and 

 the mechanic arts, and, in its every branch, the inventive 

 genius of man. The farmer, instead of merely fullowing the 

 beaten track of his ancestor, now brings to his pursuit his 

 own powers of inquiry and investigation. Chemistry teaches 

 him the nature and quality of the ingredients composing his 

 soil, the species of crop must suitable to its productive power, 

 and the kinds of manure he must use, and the proporiiim of 

 cattle he must keep to make his farm productive. As he 

 acquires a knowledge of chemistry, of agricultural geology, 

 and of the physiology of plants and animals, his crops become 

 more certain, and his reward more sure. Armed with knowl- 

 edge, the fertility of man's mind has discovered remedies for 

 the sterility of soils, and found means of guarding the fruits 

 of his labor even against the vicissitudes of climate. This is 

 not all. The American farmer possesses the means of multi- 

 plying labor, and thereby its reward, by the most ingenious 

 and etfcctive machinery." 



" I would now say a few words on the growth of timber, 

 a subject much neglected by our countrymen. Yet timber 

 is one of the most valuable productions of the soil, and an 

 indispensable requisite to the improveiuont and civilization 

 of man. No country on earth is, in this respect, more blessed 

 than our's. None can boast of such a variety of forest trees, 

 adapted to the various uses of farming, the mechanic arts, 

 architecture and ship-building. In no other country do we 

 find such magnificent shade trees, such extensive and superb 

 primeval forests, and in no part of the world is the reproduc- 

 tive power of the soil less exhausted than in our own. Yet 

 with all these incalculable advantages, and with our un- 

 bounded coal-fields, the want of lire-wood is already felt in 

 sortic districts which like the prairies of the west, are natu- 

 rally destitute of timber, o' \n which locomotives and steam- 

 boats are consuming the article faster than it can bo repro- 

 duced in the ordinary coiir.'^e of nature. There is also rea- 

 son to believe that the extreme desire of pressing civilization 

 forward, and of fertilizing the wilderness in the shortest 

 time, induces many a hardy pioneer of the West to enter 

 somewhat enthusiastically on the "extermination" of our 

 woods, when considerations not merely poetical, but eco- 

 nomical and practical, would in more than one instance call 

 out to him " Woodman, spare that tree !" 



'• Trees are not merely useful and ornamental, but also by 

 tlieir mere existence — by the breathing of uiygen — eminently 

 (■nnilucive to health. Thoy are the companions of man, as 

 much so as some of the domestic animals, and have as such, 

 actjuired a certain right to his protection. Many localities 

 which I could name, especially near the sea coast, have been 

 completely shorn of timber ; and experi^ice has .iliown that 

 a forest once entirely cut down, will not grow up again and 

 reproduce the same kinds of timber. Much inconvenience is 

 now f(dt in coiiseiiueiice. and the evil is progressive, tlireat- 

 ciiing the comfort and interests of farmers, mechanics, and 

 all clossei engaged in industrial pursuits." 



